


The Gathering

by cynatnite



Series: The Barton Initiative [8]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Bourne Legacy (2012)
Genre: Bad Guy Character Death, bad memories, no one will let James smoke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2018-07-15
Packaged: 2019-06-10 12:04:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15291141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cynatnite/pseuds/cynatnite
Summary: Aaron's next move brings him face to face with his nightmares.





	The Gathering

“I don’t like it.”

Aaron didn’t either. Nighttime gave the three-story building a haunted look, but it wasn’t what was bothering him. He’d been thinking about Byer and the easy trail to him during the long drive. There was no turning back.

“It’ll be okay.” He’d never lied to her before.

“Aaron, let’s leave. We can go back to Jakarta.”

“You were right, Doc. We weren’t really living, just hiding away.” The building was ominous and Aaron was drawn to it. He turned towards her. “If you don’t hear from me in fifteen minutes, I want you to leave.”

“No,” Marta refused. “I won’t.”

“Stark’s private number is on the laptop. You call him, tell him everything. If anyone can protect you it’s him.”

“I’m not listening to you.” Marta’s eyes went to the burner phone in her hands. She gripped it tightly and only looked up when Aaron’s hand rested on hers.

“Please, just do it.” He didn’t wait for her to respond.

Then Aaron put both hands on her cheeks and she was taken back to their first real moment together when he’d rescued her. A trust had overcome her and it was no different now.

“Okay.”

After a gentle kiss, he was out of the car and gone.

Climbing the fence was a simple matter. Aaron’s approach to the institution that had been his home was fraught with memories he’d thought long forgotten. It had been filled with more than just children like him who couldn’t be adopted. There were troubled and violent-prone ones who got away with too much when the adults weren’t paying attention. He remembered the fights and the times being locked in a solitary room alone with nothing but the cries of his own pleas.

Walking down the dark hallway, graffitied, trash strewn and mold growing up the walls like a nightmare, Aaron’s seemed to return with a vengeance. Coldness seeped into him while crying babies echoed all around him. He felt like a man without limbs that had been cut away, a part of himself missing and the phantom pain of distant wails tore at his heart.

Aaron stopped at the last room on the right. He’d shared it with several other children, some of whom couldn’t even take care of themselves. Aaron was usually the one to help them dress, to guide them to the cafeteria and would make up superhero stories as he got them to bed. His stories were never good, but the questions they asked him helped make up what he couldn’t think of.

At the far window, moonlight streamed in with the rays resting on the figure of the man who’d led him into the worst nightmares of his life. So much blood and death, Aaron recalled.

“I’ve been here for an hour, Cross. You’re slower than you used to be.” Eric Byer turned towards him, the moonlight shadowing his face. “I trained you to work alone. The objective always foremost in your mind. She slows you down.”

Aaron looked over his shoulder thinking of Marta.

“I’m not here for her,” Byer said. “I’m here for you.”

“To kill me.”

“To bring you back,” Byer corrected. “Since you viraled, your skills and intelligence can’t be matched. You’re unstoppable.”

“You tried to kill me and Marta,” Aaron told him. He couldn’t see what Byer’s game was.

“You two were a risk at the time.” Byer walked over until he stood several feet away. “Since then, you’ve stayed off the grid living quietly, playing house or whatever. I don’t care. Do you know how rare it is to be able to do that for any length of time?”

“So, I work for you and you kill her because of what she knows about Outcome.”

“She can go back to research if she’d like,” Byer reasoned. “Coming back means doing the work you were meant for.”

“A sin eater.”

“You remembered.”

“Bury all the garbage we did inside of us for the greater good or some shit like that. Yes, I remember. The answer is no.”

Byer’s mouth tightened until it was a firm line.

“You’d go back on the run? Take her with you. She would die a little every day the longer she went without seeing her family. I read her psych profile, Cross. Hasn’t she already died enough for you?” Seeing his hesitation, Byer continued. “That can all end right now.”

Aaron kept still as Byer took another three steps closer until he was within reach.

“You have no idea what you are, do you? Outcome made you one in a million, a billion. The other agents were killed easy. They were too fucking trusting. Not you. You survived, Cross. Jesus Christ, you are **THE** Survivor.”

Twist, Snap, Pop.

Eric Byer’s body slumped to the grimy floor.

Aaron just stared down at it as if he’d just stepped outside of himself not comprehending what he’d done.

He heard the numerous footsteps but remained unmoving. The figures entered the room and Aaron looked. Five others, looking like him, surrounded him and Byer’s dead body, no one speaking.

Aaron knew Marta’s footfall instinctively and he saw her push between two of his likenesses. She stared at Byer’s form in shock, then her glare went to him.

“What did you do?” She asked scarcely able to believe it.

She shoved him as hard as she could. Aaron took a step back from the force of it.

“What did you do!” Marta yelled.

Seeing her turn away from him tore at Aaron in a way he could never describe. Still, no one said a word. Aaron left the room and went to the hallway. He stopped near the stairwell, put his hands on his hips and kept his back turned. What the fuck had he done?

“We need to leave.”

Aaron jerked around. It was the one he’d tranquilized on the motorcycle. Clint Barton. With a small nod, Aaron agreed and followed him out and to the quinjet. Marta was sitting already and not speaking. He glanced at each of them and while questions formed in his mind, Aaron said nothing. He sat across from Marta knowing she wouldn’t want to be near him. He closed his eyes as the aircraft lifted into the air.

~*~

 

Back at Stark Tower, Brian Gamble leaned back in the comfortable sectional tossing a baseball up and catching it over and over. His mind on the scene that they’d come upon at finding Kenneth, correction, he thought morosely, Aaron Cross, and Byer’s body. He was torn between gladness and fucking pissed.

He glanced over at James who took a seat not far from him. Brian didn’t say anything as James lit a smoke and took a long drag from it.

“So?” James asked.

“I know,” Brian answered. “I don’t fucking get it either.”

Neither spoke for a moment and watched as Cory came over with two beers and a can of soda. They each took a beer. Cory eased down next to them and flipped open the can.

James put the cigarette to his lips and it was taken from his fingers by Cory.

“Asshole,” James muttered.

“Quit crying,” Cory chided. “Jarvis, you got a disposal around here?”

“Dispatched, Mr. Lambert.”

A tiny robot on wheels whizzed over and Cory set the cigarette on top before it buzzed away.  The elevator door slid open and Marta followed Natasha across the room and down a hallway. Confusion and hurt was still on her face. A few minutes later, Clint entered with Aaron next to him.

When they were gone, Cory shook his head. “Just shit.”

“He needed to die,” Brian simply said. “A lot of people are dead because of him. Cross did humanity a service.”

“Cross could’ve kept it together long enough for us to get to Byer. Can’t get the truth from a dead body.” Cory tipped the soda and took a long drink.

“You think someone like that would’ve really talked?” James asked. “I’ve met spook assholes like him. They don’t talk.”

“Damn straight,” Brian agreed. “Coulson thinks breaking into that server alerted Byer. It was a fucking setup. Smart bastard.”

“Not smart enough,” Cory commented.  

“What’s next?” James asked. “We all go back to our corners of the world, go back to our lives like before?”

“Don’t see why we’d do that,” Cory replied. He finished off the can and eyed the sink over at the kitchen. He threw the can and smiled when it landed. “We can keep in touch.”

“Where’s Brandt?” Brian asked.

“One of the bedrooms,” Cory said. “Talking to Ethan. The IMF likely won’t be happy to hear him tell it.”

“Street got introduced to Clint’s range. He’ll be there for a couple more hours,” Brian added.

“I’ve never been to New York before,” Cory told them. “Why don’t we check out the city before heading back home.”

“They see a cowboy hat-wearing hayseed like you and they’ll be looking for one of those MAGA hats underneath,” Brian said.

“How do you know I don’t have one?” Cory challenged.

Brian and James both snickered. They knew better.  

“Sure, why the hell not,” James offered. “I’ve got a few days to blow off.”

 

~*~

 

Marta came out of the bathroom to see Aaron sitting on the corner of the bed. The look on his face said it all. He hadn’t gone in to kill Byer. The bastard had pushed Aaron the wrong way. It was the only explanation. Still, she had no words to offer him.

She crossed the room and sat next to him.

“I’m sorry,” Aaron whispered. He looked into her eyes for forgiveness. “I’m sorry.”

Marta put her arms around him and pulled him to her chest.

“I’m sorry, too,” she said.

They held each other, refusing to let go.

 

~*~

 

When Clint came out of the bathroom, Phil was already in bed working on his laptop. He couldn’t count the times he’d fallen asleep to the comforting noise of Phil’s typing. It felt safe.

“Everyone getting settled?” Clint asked.

“Yes. Ethan said he might have something for us tomorrow. I’m not sure what it could be at this point.”

“Yeah.” Clint flipped off the bathroom light and went to the bed. “Byer could’ve cinched this whole thing and we would’ve got some answers.”

“Likely not, Clint. Byer was a trained spy and soldier. He saw people as a means to an end, not as people. We would’ve been one more objective for him.”

“Maybe Aaron will be more forthcoming in the morning after some sleep.” He scooted under the covers. “I don’t think he planned on killing him, Phil.”

“No.”

Clint looked over at Phil who was reading a file.

“What are you looking for?”

“Information about Sterisyn-Morlanta. The research facility Dr. Shearing worked for. It’s a biogenetics lab. They’re a subsidiary of Candent Group.”

“Boss, it’s over. Byer’s death ends it.”

“Does it?” Phil asked. “Companies who do this kind of research usually never leave it behind especially in cases where success has been found.”

“Skye said they erased everything regarding this Outcome.”

“Not the science,” Phil told him. “They never get rid of the science.”

“Well, there’s not much to do at this point.”

Phil then closed the laptop and set it aside.

“Are you sure about that?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Clint, do you know who is in this apartment?”

“Of course.” Clint was getting a little miffed at Phil’s attitude.

“I don’t think you do. You know their names and just about everything else about them, but the most important thing.”

Clint turned over and sighed. “Yeah, what’s that?”

“Your brothers, Clint. They are your brothers. You haven’t said it since you started this thing.”

It was true. Clint was faced with having a family in a way he’d never experienced before. He and Barney had never had a normal brotherly relationship. Carmine was his uncle and now lost to him. In the next room and the other bedrooms were five men who had entered the world with him. They would be tied to one another forever.

“I don’t know what I’m doing, Phil,” Clint said in a small voice. “If I push too hard, they might…”

“They came here not just to get their blood tested, Clint. They came because of you and because of each other. They know what it means and now you do, too. Trust them.”

“God, I love you.”

“I know.”

Clint jerked the pillow out from under him and hit Phil with it. “You Star Wars nerd!”

Phil laughed as he pulled Clint close.  

**Author's Note:**

> Part 9 of the series:
> 
> https://archiveofourown.org/works/15296028


End file.
